


Time and the Force

by SpaceWaffleHouseTM



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: A lot of Time Travel, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, F/M, First Kiss, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Dyad (Star Wars), M/M, No Pregnancy, Post Doctor Who Series Three, Post TLJ, The TARDIS is force sensitive, Time Travel, mentions of Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler - Freeform, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:22:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23436874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceWaffleHouseTM/pseuds/SpaceWaffleHouseTM
Summary: Months after the events of The Last Jedi, Rey is about to die in the midst of battle when suddenly a hand reaches out and tells her to come with him. She follows the stranger to safety, asking for his name as she goes.His ship is the strangest thing she’s ever seen, and his name?All he tells her is, “the Doctor.”Or Rey and Ben run into a mad man with a box.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 87
Kudos: 113
Collections: Comfort Gems 2020, Reylo Hidden Gems, TROS Reylo Fix-it Fics





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is gonna be kinda wild y’all ngl. I outlined this while I was at a summer program with my university last summer before TRoS came out, and as a result my outline takes bits from the trailer 💖. Hopefully this goes the way I hope it will, Ive already written a couple of chapters and I hope to post about once a week 🙌 see y’all soon.

Death was seconds away. Blaster bolts were firing at all sides at a rate far too fast for her to stop them and the only cover she had was behind a ten foot wall of metal that was slowly becoming more hole than wall. She wad screwed, for lack of a better word, on the brink of death. 

Where was the rest of the resistance? She couldn’t see anyone around, but the wall was sort of a dead end. The cave she was currently battling in stopped twenty feet back, and so once her enemy got closer, she was probably a dead woman. Perhaps she could try reaching out to Ben, begging him to ask them to spare her, but their connection had never brought them together just because they asked nicely, and things had been tense since the last time they’d talked. 

Death was imminent, inevitable, and unavoidable, so she closed her eyes, braced herself for the impact she knew was coming any second now, and sent mental apologies to her friends for having no chance to say goodbye. 

It never came. A few seconds later, she heard a grunt to her left, and as she looked over, she saw a strangely dressed man—he was wearing some sort of dark brown suit in the middle of a tropical rainforest—duck behind the same wall for cover, his hands fumbling hurriedly in his pocket for something as he spared occasional glances behind him at the stormtroopers that were bearing down on them both. 

She blinked at him as he fished around in his pocket, not seeming scared or nervous about what was going on at all as he dug for the object. Where had he come from? She didn’t know him from the Resistance, he wasn’t dressed like a soldier, he had no visible weapons, but he didn’t seem to wear the traditional black adorned by all of the First Order. Who the hell was this man? 

Reaching for her lightsaber, she pulled it from her belt and ignited it, the hum pulling the strange man’s attention from his pockets as he watched her point it in his direction. “Who the hell are you?” she asked. “What are you doing here?”

“Trying to save our lives,” he replied, his voice a touch too perky for the situation at hand, then he offered her a smile, seeming to almost thrive on the chaos as more blaster shots rained down on the wall. “Blasted ship, took a wrong turn past the eighteenth century, wound up in the heat of battle.”

Somehow, she only felt more confused. “What?”

“Now I can’t get back to my ship,” he continued, as if she hadn’t spoken at all. “I don’t have enough regenerations left to survive all that blaster fire, and I can’t…” A frustrated grunt escaped him as he dug around in his pocket for whatever he’d been looking for. “I can’t find my sonic screwdriver!”

There wasn’t much she understood from his ramble, but one thing was clear. “You have a ship?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Is it close?”

“Right outside the cave, maybe fifty meters? Give or take?” he said, then he laughed victoriously, proudly brandishing a piece of metal that was a few inches long and blue at the tip. “Found it.”

“That’s great, how do we get out of here?”

At this, he crawled over across the space between them, and held out his hand. “Listen, I know we’ve just met, but do you trust me?”

Blinking in disbelief, Rey reached out into the force, trying to gauge whether or not this man was someone she could put her faith in. There was something good about him, she could tell that on the surface, but looking deeper she could see the tendrils of something dark lying beneath. At some point, the man standing before her had developed a dark history, and whatever it was, she probably shouldn’t have trusted him, but the hand outstretched towards her promised safety, and it was a better plan than the one she’d had initially of just dying. 

“Yes,” she said, then he pulled them both to their feet, and pointed his weird tool at the sky. 

“When I say so, run like hell.”

_ That  _ she could do. Running was a thing she’d mastered over the years, so when the man pressed a button on his little device and the lights in the cave went out, she let him tug her out from behind the wall and toward the cave entrance, turning her lightsaber off as they ran to avoid detection. Around them, the world burst into chaos, but as she ran with this odd, eccentric man who confused her beyond anything else, she found she was able to weave through the crowd of stormtroopers effortlessly. 

She could feel each and every one of them in the force as they rushed past. It was almost like being able to see as they burst forth from the cave into the planet’s night, and she used the force to ensure she and this stranger slipped past them all undetected as they ran towards a strange, box shaped thing on the top of a nearby hill with its name written in aurebesh on the top. 

What the hell was a, “Police Public Call Box” and why was it blue?

“Where’s your ship?” she asked the man running beside her, letting go of his hand as they ran side by side. “I don’t see one.”

“It’s that one right there,” he said, pointing to the box just as blaster fire began to sound close by again. Apparently the stormtroopers has figured out that their targets had escaped. They probably weren’t too happy about that. 

“What? The box?”

“Yes, the box,” he replied as they ran a little faster. “Normally, I’d talk it up a bit, warn you what it’s like, but—“

“It’s too small for both of us!”

Laughter sounded from beside her, and she looked over to see the mad man laughing as he reached into his pocket, and produced a golden key attached to a piece of string. He said nothing as they approached the ship, but once he put the key into the lock and opened the doors, he reached for her hand again. “No time to protest, you can do the walk around it when we land.”

_ What the hell _ was he talking about? Why would she need to walk around his strangely built ship? Why would she want to after spending time with this stranger in what was effectively a small cabinet—

_ Oh.  _

The inside was massive. That was why. Large coral structures rose up around the walls and converged over a central console that glowed green, lighting the room in a similar shade offset slightly by lights on the walls higher up in the great, cavernous cockpit of the stranger’s ship. A scoff of disbelief escaped her as the stranger closed the door behind her, then he ran toward the console, throwing off his brown overcoat as he ran, and began immediately pulling at levers and switches, clearly attempting to pilot the massive ship that was somehow—

“It’s bigger on the inside,” Rey breathed, observing that the stranger seemed to be mouthing it along with her. 

“Yes, it is, isn’t it?” He then ran around the console, and placed his hand on a lever before gesturing beside her. “You may want to hold on to something, she’s been in a bit of a fuss lately.”

“ _ She? _ ” Sure, many soldiers named their ships after women, called them by female pronouns, but something about the way he said it, the way he looked at the console of that ship made Rey think it meant something else entirely. 

Without another word, he grunted—though the sound faded into a victorious loop—and pushed down the lever, causing the console centerpiece to rise and fall repeatedly as the whole ship jerked. She gripped the railing neatest to her as tightly as she could to keep from being thrown off her feet as her lightsaber fell to the floor beside her, and she stared up in awe at the centerpiece, her eyes drifting down to the console where the man was hard at work flying his ship. 

There were three souls she could sense in the room. One was hers, the second was his, and the third, somehow, inexplicably, belonged to his ship. The box he’d dragged her into, the weird, impossible box that was bigger on the inside than the outside, was alive. 

_ I see you _ , she thought, wondering if the machine could pick up on it. She could feel it so strongly she wondered if the soul weren’t human, but the ship seemed to almost laugh in the force at that. No, she wasn’t human, but she was sentient. 

The mad man who had just saved her life had a living being as a ship. 

After a few more seconds of staring at the centerpiece, the man’s erratic movements came to a stop, and she walked forward, wincing at a mild pain at her side as she approached the console. “I…”

“It’s called a TARDIS,” he explained, crossing his arms over his chest as he walked around the console to stand by her side. “Stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space.”

“What?”

“It travels through not only space, but time as well. Much like any other ship in this galaxy would use a hyperspace lane to save time traversing the galaxy, except…” He gestured to the doors. “Right now, we’re inside the time vortex. All of space and time at our hands.”

Blinking at him, Rey struggled to process what he was telling her. Space travel was one thing, that was fine, but traveling through time as well? 

It was too much to believe. “No, this is, this is impossible, this is mad,” she replied, stepping back and away from him as she looked up at his ship, and again she felt the tendrils of reassurance reaching out into her mind. 

_ It’s real,  _ the ship seemed to assure her, and suddenly she could see flashes of this man as she closed her eyes. He’d taken on many faces on his journey with this mysterious box, many different personalities, and now he stood before her with a tenth. Many people stood by his side, a granddaughter, a couple of school teachers, a young man in a kilt, a reporter, a model, a young blonde woman whom he looked at like she was the sun, and most recently, a dark-skinned woman in a red leather jacket who walked the Earth—whatever Earth was. 

And she could see fire. A planet—his planet—was burning, and his people with it. They were all gone. He, like her, had nobody. He was alone. 

They were both alone. 

Gasping, she opened her eyes, realizing she was bracing herself against the console of his ship as she looked up at him, realizing his were impossibly old for a man so young. He was ten maybe fifteen years older than her, and yet his eyes told a different story. In them she could see all of that pain and misery, and also concern. “Who are you?” he asked, but it wasn’t a scared, intrusive question, his voice was full of a genuine, fascinated curiosity. 

“I’m Rey,” she answered him, offering her hand.

“Rey who?”

“Just… Rey.”

At this, he grinned. “I get that a lot, too,” he replied, then he took her hand. “I’m the Doctor.”

Cocking her head to the side, she shook his hand, then—“Doctor who?”

“Just the Doctor,” he assured her, and suddenly she understood. They both had no one. They belonged to no family, so he was just the Doctor and she was just Rey, and she couldn’t help smiling. It felt good to be seen by another person as just herself. 

She laughed, then she winced again at the pain that brought to her side, rubbing the area tenderly as she pulled her hand away. “Thanks for saving me.”

The Doctor laughed as he pulled away, then walked around to a monitor on the far side of the console. “It’s in the title. Doctor. I help people.”

“I suppose so,” she replied, walking back over to the ship’s entrance to pick up her lightsaber. “How come it's bigger on the inside?”

“Technology from my home planet,” he answered. “Time lord technology.”

That sounded familiar. “Time lord?”

At this, his face grew solemn for a moment, then he put his focus back on the monitor as she bent to retrieve her lightsaber. “Yeah, it’s my, uh, species.”

She recalled tales she’d heard in her childhood, tales of a Great War in another galaxy that spanned half a universe and many, many lifetimes. Centuries of violence had passed, and though most core planets knew little of it, planets further out, like Jakku, thrived on legends like the time war and the downfall of the time lords, the downfall of— “Gallifrey,” she said suddenly, pointing the business end of the lightsaber his way. “You’re from Gallifrey.”

He said nothing, and she scoffed in disbelief. “I’d thought Gallifrey was just a myth.” Then another half-hearted laugh as she latched her saber to her belt. “I thought the same about Luke Skywalker.”

“It might as well be,” the Doctor replied, then he put his hand on a lever. “Where’s your base? I can return you to your people, and we can part ways.”

“Sure, it’s in—“ she started as she stood, then she yelled as the pain at her side grew suddenly unbearable, and she found herself clutching desperately at her side as she knelt down to the floor again, looking down at her hands to realize they were covered in bright red blood. “Damn it.”

“Are you all right?”

Looking up at him, she noticed something funny, his head was blurred at the edges and there were random black spots appearing through the room. “Your eyes are black,” she told him, then everything else turned the same color, and she lost consciousness. 

*

Rey woke in some sort of medbay unsure of where she was. Her tan fabric that she draped over her shoulders and across her body was gone, her white undershirt rolled up to her chest, and her belt was gone too as a result. Both her blaster and her lightsaber were no longer at her side, and she felt a rising panic before she saw the gauze wrapped around her waist holding a bacta patch in place. 

It was then that the events of the day finally caught up to her. The separation from the Resistance, the First Order surrounding them, the sudden appearance of this strange man in his blue box—

The medbay door opened, and the Doctor appeared, looking significantly more disheveled than she last saw him, and wearing an odd looking pair of spectacles that were perfectly rectangular. His suit jacket was gone, the pale blue sleeves of his shirt rolled up to reveal arms that were stained in places with drying blood—her blood. “Good to see you awake,” he said, his voice oddly perky given that she was fairly certain she’d almost died. 

“What happened?”

“Blaster fire, you took a hit. ‘Course, we were running, and adrenaline was pumping so you didn’t notice, but you were shot so when we started conversing and things calmed down—“ He smacked one palm against the other, the sound frightening her as he looked at her with wide, eager eyes. “ _ Bam!  _ You went into shock from pain. Luckily, this ship has a very well-stocked medbay. Easy fix, you should be in fighting shape in a matter of days.”

_ Days? _ She didn’t have days. The Resistance’s numbers were still dwindling, things still weren’t the same after the last time they’d faced the First Order—they needed her back soon before— “I can’t be here for days, I have to get back,” she replied. “My people, the Resistance, they need me—“

“I  _ did _ mention this ship travels through time, yes?”

Pausing, she sat up, ignoring her protesting gut as she lowered her shirt over the bandaged wound. “I remember,” she said slowly. “Your ship told me.”

“You can sense the TARDIS.” That same sense of wonder from earlier was in his voice as he approached her cot, pointing a knowing finger in her direction. “What year is this, are you a Jedi?”

“Thirty five ABY, and yes,” she answered him. “I’m–I’m the last one.”

His eyes narrowed as he looked at her, then they widened for a second before he collected himself, and it hit her then that maybe he really was a time traveler. “You’re Rey,” he said suddenly. “All of space and time, I know my history, and this galaxy, on this year, on that planet…” He pointed a finger toward her chest. “You’re Rey—hold on, what year is this again?”

“Thirty five ABY.” Confusion overwhelmed her as he nodded, then he laughed to himself. 

“‘Course it is. I’d heard you mention Luke Skywalker earlier, but I somehow didn’t put it together, I’m so thick,” he muttered, then he laughed again. “At least now I know where to take you when you’ve recovered. Ajan Kloss, is it?”

Blinking at him, she nodded, then tilted her head to the side as she slid to the edge of the bed. “Yes, it is. How would you know that?”

“Time traveler, remember?” He tapped his temple. “I know this galaxy, this war and the people involved.”

“So you know how it ends.”

“Yes, I do.”

“And I don’t suppose you’d tell me?”

“If I told you that would create a paradox. Your knowledge would influence and change events that cannot be changed. Time would be in flux, you can’t know your own future. It’s a dangerous thing,” he said, then he shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers. “But I  _ can _ admit to knowing who you are. Never thought I’d have you on my ship.”

“The TARDIS?”

“The TARDIS,” he confirmed, then he stepped back. “Well, I suppose that’s everything. I’ll be making repairs in the front room if you need me, kitchen’s three doors down on the right, library two doors after that—but don’t fall into the swimming pool, and don’t read books that you know will spoil the future—and try not to get lost in the hallways, they don’t exactly have an end.”

“What?”

“Ship is bigger on the inside. Even I don’t know how big it is,” he replied, sounding almost gleeful at the absurd statement. “Good luck, and if there’s anywhere you need to be, let me know.”

Her jaw fell slack, lips parting slightly as she watched him turn from her and prepare to leave the room all the while she was struggling with what to say. Suddenly, it came to her just as he was walking from the room. “Doctor?”

He turned around. “Yeah?”

“Thank you,” she said softly. “For saving me.”

“It’s in the title,” he replied, then he made his way from the medbay, and left her alone. 

Once she was alone, Rey leaned back against the bed, feeling her wound as she sensed the ship reaching out for her again in the force. Calm and serenity washed over her, easing the panic she could feel building from deep within her chest as soon as her savior left.  _ It’ll be okay _ , a voice seemed to say, and for a moment it almost reminded her of the connection she shared with Ben. They could get inside of one another’s heads, too, but Ben wasn’t a ship. He didn’t have the ability to transcend time and space, or… maybe he did just a little. He tended to when the force would connect them and he’d appear before her as if they were actually in the same room. 

Another groan escaped her as she thought of him. In the months since Crait, she’d spoken to him more frequently than she cared to admit, but many of those conversations were arguments—mostly about him taking up half of her bed in the night—and didn’t count. They were tense around each other most of the time, and lately she’d had little desire to speak to him after a particularly nasty skirmish between their two sides. 

Even now, though, she could feel their connection burning bright between them. In this moment when she was supposed to be outside of all of space and time, woven into the very fabric of the universe, she could feel him there, tethered to her as if some sort of chord existed between them. 

Somehow, it was even clearer than normal, it felt like if she just pulled, just tugged on it a little harder, she could summon him forth. Suddenly, and perhaps foolishly, she did, and he appeared before her, zipping up his tunic as the sound of the connection forming filled his ears. Without hesitating, his eyes looked up, and found hers, and he stopped what he was doing, the tunic half-zipped over his black undershirt as he stared at her. 

“Where are you?”

“Why the hell would I tell you?” she asked him, partially because she had no idea how to explain what had happened to her. How did she tell Ben that she’d been found by a time traveler?

Worry filled his face, and much to her surprise, he walked over and sat down on a nearby cot. “Rey, you’ve been fading from the connection for hours. I thought you were dying,” he explained, then he looked her up and down. “I felt pain, and then nothing.”

“I was wounded by _your_ stormtroopers,” she snarled. “I’m fine now.”

“Oh?”

“I’m safe, that’s all that matters,” she replied, then she saw the defeat in his eyes, the worry that still existed even though she was snapping at him. Softening slightly, she pressed a hand over her wound, then sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“I am too. Tell me which planet it was, I’ll apprehend them.”

“I don’t want you to apprehend them,” she muttered, turning her head to look over at him. “You know what I want.”

Looking up at her with more defeat, all he could say in response was, “I can’t,” before the connection faded, and she was once again alone. 

Reeling from the short conversation they’d just had, Rey slumped back against the cot, and sighed. Even in the kriffing time vortex, she couldn’t escape the conflict between them, couldn’t stop the constant, incessant stress of knowing they could do and be better. All she could feel was disappointment. 

She needed to walk around like the Doctor had suggested. Distract herself with new sights and smells and ideas. Once her side stopped aching, she decided she was going to explore as he’d suggested, but until then she was going to sit back and rest, closing her eyes as she allowed time to pass freely without being afraid of it, and slept on until she was ready to face the next leg of her journey. 


	2. Chapter 2

The TARDIS was, as promised, absolutely enormous. Rey found herself walking down metal-lined walls that could’ve honestly belonged to the Falcon if she looked at them out of focus, but as they began to wind, twist, and turn, she knew she was nowhere near Han’s beloved ship. 

It was all still so impossible to believe. She was on board a sentient ship that could travel through time with a man from a different galaxy who seemed off-kilter but well meaning, and she’d somehow been able to activate her bond with Ben even in spite of floating through the time vortex. 

So many impossible things happened that day, but she’d once believed many true things to be the stuff of myth and legend. If her experiences with Luke and his family had taught her anything, it was that she needed to keep an open mind. Anything could be true, even the most unlikely of stories. 

She laughed to herself at the thought as she stumbled upon what must’ve been the kitchen the Doctor had mentioned. Cabinets and drawers seemed to call her name with more of the same metallic theme framing each piece of the room, and on the counter, a half eaten yellow fruit lay slowly browning from where she presumed the eccentric pilot of the ship had set it down before his next thought distracted him. 

Shaking her head, she opened the first cabinet she saw, and her stomach growled at the sight of bread that looked somewhat freshly baked and not out of a package or days old like she used to get at Niima outpost.  _ Oh,  _ she needed this. She needed this badly. 

Pulling the little container the bread was in out of the cabinet, Rey removed the lid, and began digging her fingers into the bread before she left the kitchen, and began to explore the strange man’s ship. Those scavenger instincts of hers were kicking in, making her curious to see what all the ship had to offer. What neglected parts could she put to good use? 

A moan escaped her at the exquisite taste of the bread as she made her way down the hall, heading toward the door he’d said belonged to the library. She’d never done much in the way of reading before, her only experience being the Jedi texts she’d lifted from Ahch-To, but now she was curious. What stories did the entire universe have to offer? What did other galaxies read to children at night to get them to sleep? What did grown people do to pass the time when they needed to escape? What history did they have? What could she learn?

The idea fascinated her, and so she eagerly pushed open the library door, and found herself inside of a large, cavernous space rising several stories above her head. The room was so large she had to crane her neck to observe the ceiling, causing her jaw to drop as a few crumbs of bread gracelessly made their way to the floor. She didn’t care, though. The crumbs didn’t matter, all that did was the knowledge she could  _ feel  _ radiating from this room. There was so much to learn and discover. So much to see, so much to do while she recovered from her wound, and even now as it ached at her side, she found herself unable to be bothered by it. And, as promised, a massive pool of blue water sat at the center of it all.

She’d thought the most incredible thing in the galaxy had been the green of the jungle on Takodana. She had been very, very wrong. 

An excited grin lit up Rey’s face, and she strode forward into the library, approaching the first shelf she found as she picked up a book, surprised that the title was in aurebesh even though it must’ve been from another galaxy. Books in hers didn’t look like that. 

“ _ The Hobbit, _ ” she said aloud, then her eyebrows furrowed. “What’s a Hobbit?”

“A Hobbit?” Ben’s voice asked from behind her, and she dropped the book—and her bread, damn him—in shock as she turned around. 

Scoffing, Rey bent your retrieve both fallen objects, then she shook her head. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” she said, then she laughed. “As if I’d tell you anyway.”

He cocked his head to the side. “You’re not with the Resistance.”

“How would you know?”

Pointing a leather gloved hand at her, his eyes drifted down to her abdomen, where she could see the outline of the gauze and bacta patch beneath her thin shirt. “You would’ve told me you were in the Resistance med-bay earlier. Maybe the—“ He winced at his upcoming words. “Maybe the Falcon. But you didn’t.” Pausing, he looked down to the book in her hand. “You’re somewhere else.”

“How observant of you,” she replied, then she placed the book back on the shelf, her mood soured by having dropped it and her food, but surprisingly, not by Ben. 

As she met his gaze, she could feel his concern for her drifting in through the bond, and she frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“What do you mean?”

“I can sense your worry, you forget we’re—“

He waved off the end of that sentence, holding his hand in the air between them for a couple of seconds before allowing it to fall to his side. “You don’t know?” he asked softly, risking a step toward her as she set down the bread on top of the book. “You truly don’t know?”

“Know what?”

Sighing, he took a step back. “I know what our circumstances are, I know what we both want of each other, but although you are not at my side, I—“ He shook his head. “I should leave.”

Reaching forward, she surprised herself when she grabbed hold of his sleeve. “Wait!” she cried, then he stopped, both of them staring down at her hand for a few seconds before she let go. “You’re still so conflicted.”

“I think I always will be, so long as you’re around.”

“Ben…” 

“I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

“Then stop,” she said, letting her hand slip down to hold his, mourning the lack of warmth through his leather gloves. “Come home.”

He shook his head. “I can’t go back to her now, not after—“

“She’s your mother, Ben, she loves you,” she replied, shaking her head as she stepped forward, and opened her mouth to speak. “I—“

Whatever she was going to say, however that sentence was going to end, she didn’t get to say it. Their connection faded in that moment, and he was gone, leaving her alone in the TARDIS library standing feet from the swimming pool, her jaw still slack, her hand burning from where he’d touched it, and her whole body frozen. She’d reached him then, she knew she had. It’d happened a few times over the past months since Crait, those moments where she saw past the mask of Kylo into the man who was Ben Solo. 

He still existed, trapped by clutches that no longer existed. Snoke was dead, and as far as she knew, the First Order was the biggest threat to the galaxy. His deflection could end it, and she could see he wanted to jump ship, but fear held him back. He’d been so conditioned to believe in the dark, in the idea that he wasn’t good enough for his own family, that even with the evil that had brought him over gone, he still was blind. 

Somehow, she would bring him back. She had no choice, she had to find him, and finish what she’d started when she’d flown herself out to the Supremacy. 

Resolution setting in, Rey turned, and started to make her way from the library, when she noticed the Doctor standing at the doorway, his hand running through his spiky hair as he peered at her curiously. “We’re in flight!” he breathed, looking between her and where Ben had just been standing. 

Blinking, she stared at him with the same expression he was giving to her. “You saw that? Saw him?”

A broad smile appeared on the Doctor’s face as he clapped his hands together. “Oh, that’s brilliant,” he said, smiling from ear to ear as he approached. “I knew you could appear before one another, but I never imagined the connection could stabilize while one of you was in the time vortex. You learn something new every day.”

This time, it was her turn to stare at him in disbelief. “What?”

He tapped his temple. “Time traveler, remember?” Another wide grin. “I don’t know all of my history of this galaxy, but I know enough.” Gesturing between her and Ben’s empty place in the room, he stepped forward, encroaching slightly on her space. “A dyad in the force, fascinating.”

“Dyad?”

“Yup!” he replied, popping the p as he spoke. “A dyad. Two that are one. Two halves of the same soul. Quite poetic things, dyads, and  _ incredibly _ rare.” His voice dropped an octave on those last two words, seeming to change pitch every few seconds every time he spoke. It was yet another eccentric quality about him, she noticed, but she didn’t have time to worry about the Doctor’s strange personality. He’d just taught her something important. 

“But we were told our connection was forged by Supreme Leader Snoke!”

“He lied. A dyad cannot be forced by anyone’s hand,” the Doctor said, his face slowly growing more serious. “One soul split between two people. Shared from birth. No one else can interfere.”

Her breathing grew heavy as she stumbled back against the bookshelf, and bit her lip, trying to process what she was hearing. “And this is true?”

“Every word. I won’t tell you anything about your future, but…” he waved his hand in the air from side to side. “A few tid-bits about the present are all right, I suppose.”

She didn’t say anything. All she could think was that this wasn’t just some accident. Deep in her gut, her very soul—or at least, her half of the one she and Ben shared—she’d always known that somehow, Snoke wasn’t telling the truth, but hearing it from someone who knew how this all ended? That was another experience entirely. 

He quirked a curious eyebrow at her. “Are you all right?”

“I just…” she shook her head. “It’s difficult, caring for someone you can only ever see when some unknown force decides it’s time for you to appear before them. Or for someone whose ideology differs vastly from—“ Putting her head in her hands, she groaned. “And not even that, someone who is trapped, and I don’t know how to free him. I’ve tried.”

There was a pause, then the time traveler stepped forward, and there was a hand being rested on her shoulder. “Setting aside differences can seem to be an impossible task, but it’s more so a bit unlikely,” he replied. “So can setting him free from himself.”

Sniffling, she nodded. “I suppose so.” Then she laughed. “I’ve hardly had any time with him, but I miss him. I want to end this war and tell him how much before it’s too late.”

“I know that feeling.”

“You do?”

He leaned back against a shelf, shoving his hands in his pockets as memories dashed in front of his eyes. “I am not as young as I appear to be, Rey.” Laughter fell from his lips, then. “I am so old now, I used to have so much joy, so much excitement.”

“If you’ll forgive me, I think you still do.”

“I’ve fought in wars,” he continued as if he hadn’t heard her. “I’ve seen things you’d never believe over the centuries.”

“Centuries?”

“I’m nine hundred and four years old,” he said, and Rey blinked at him, barely able to fathom how a person could be that old. She knew Chewie was at least two centuries old at this point, and Wookiee could live for far longer than that, but she’d never imagined nine hundred and four years. Hell, she didn’t think even Maz Kanata, who carried an air of immortality about her, would carry on for nine hundred years. 

The man before her, whom she’d initially presumed to be no more than fifteen years her senior, was now telling her just that. He was nine centuries old. A part of her wanted to believe that it was a lie, but she could feel in the force that it was true.  _ Time lord _ , he’d said he was, and what an apt title for a species that could survive as long as his. “Impossible.”

The Doctor seemed as if he were about to respond to her, but then a faint and distant alarm sounded, and he ran out into the hallway. She wanted to follow his breakneck pace, but found herself walking a bit slowly behind him as he headed back towards the cockpit—she wasn’t sure what else to call that large, cavernous room he’d referred to as his ship—while she followed at a slow pace. 

She felt weakened by her injury, and she hated it. 

Eventually, she managed to get into the cockpit, watching as the Doctor dashed like mad around the console and occasionally typed things into the monitor. “What’s going on?”

“Distress signal, coming from your galaxy,” he replied, then he glanced at the monitor. “Corellian YT light freighter.”

Feeling herself go pale, she ran a little faster to his side. “That’s the Falcon!”

“What,  _ the _ Falcon?” he asked, voice rising in pitch. “The millennium falcon?”

“Yes,” she replied, then she paused. “Of course you’d know that, too.”

“What?” He shrugged. “You live as long as me, you learn the local legends of the major galaxies. This one just happens to be true.” Looking at the monitor again, he managed a chuckle. “It truly is a piece of junk.”

“Garbage, really,” she replied, then she frowned. “Hold on, didn’t you say they were hailing us with a distress signal?”

“Yes, yes I did.” Then he hurriedly began pumping a nearby lever, pressing buttons on the monitor keyboard intermittently as he hurried about the console. “Locking onto their signal…”

Walking over to his side, Rey watched the Millenium Falcon teeter in flight, struggling to avoid the fire of several TIE fighters that were on its tail. The gunner, whoever they were, was struggling to shoot in all the commotion. There wasn’t anything they seemed to be able to do about their inevitable doom, and for a moment, she feared she was about to watch her friends die.

Then the TARDIS’s engines groaned, and for a moment, the whole ship rocked as they came out of the time vortex, and the Doctor gritted his teeth as he typed something else. “Millenium Falcon, this is the TARDIS, do you read me?” he asked, but he wasn’t holding any type of com link. 

_ What a curious sort of man.  _

“Who the hell is this?” Poe’s voice asked in response, then she brought her fingers to her mouth, chewing absentmindedly at a cuticle as worry began to take over. They didn’t have time for the Commander’s mistrust and fear. They had to get the hell out of there and run. 

“I’m the Doctor, I’m here to help you, I just need you to fly a little closer to the tiny blue box on your starboard side.” And much to Rey’s relief, the Falcon turned right, heading straight for them as the TIEs followed suit. 

“Why the hell should I trust you? I don’t know who you are.”

“Well, that’s an excellent point, really, you shouldn’t trust me, but given that you’re about to go down at any second and we’re in a wa—“

“Poe, I’m here, you can trust him,” Rey interrupted, placing a hand on the Doctor’s shoulder briefly as she spoke. 

“ _ Rey? _ ” he cried, his voice filled with disbelief and shock. “Where the hell are you?”

Shaking her head, she sighed as she stared out at the monitor. “The blue box, I’ll explain later just do as the Doctor says.”

“... are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure, now please, for both our sakes, get your asses out of there!”

Luckily, Poe had at least one functional brain cell, and he banked the ship hard to the right so that they were heading straight for the TARDIS at a speed that seemed a little uncomfortably fast for her liking. “Locking onto them now…” the Doctor muttered under his breath, moving at a million miles an hour as he raced about the ship’s console. 

“I thought we were already locked onto them.”

“I’m pulling them into this ship’s force field, if I can tether them to us, we can hitch a ride through the time vortex and appear at your base in the same second we left this place,” he explained, then he typed something else into the monitor. “Where was it again?”

“Ajan—“ The ship shook, and she grimaced as her wounded side banged up against the console. “Ajan Kloss.”

“Perfect, to Ajan Kloss it is then,” he replied, then he looked at her with a wild grin, and gripped a lever. “ _ Allonsy!” _

She had no idea what that meant, but mere seconds later, the TARDIS was properly in flight, pulling the Millenium Falcon with it through the time vortex as they all rode together across the galaxy. A victorious whoop left the Doctor, then he pulled them out of the vortex, and soon she saw the green and blue surface of Ajan Kloss surrounding them. 

Well, not only that, but about fifty different Resistance guns, all pointed at their seemingly little blue box and the Falcon. 

“Ah,” the Doctor muttered. “They look happy to see us.”

Swallowing nervously, Rey swept a piece of hair from her face, then she looked up at him. “Let me walk out first. If they see me, they’re less likely to shoot you.”

“Wouldn’t be a problem if they did,” he replied as she began to walk toward the entrance, him following a few feet behind her. 

Snorting her amusement, she reached for the doors. “Don’t tell me, you’re immortal as well as impossibly old.”

Shrugging, he managed a quiet laugh in response. “In a sense.”

Still pondering what that meant, she pulled the doors open, and stepped out to face the crowd of her friends and the others who had become like family, hopeful that no one would attack them on sight. 


	3. Chapter 3

Luckily, no one shot them. As predicted, the moment people saw Rey and she explained the Doctor was with her, the weapons were lowered, and they were allowed to make their way over to the Millenium Falcon as Finn and Poe disembarked, disbelieving looks on their faces as they stared at her like she’d sprouted a second head. 

“What the hell is this?” Poe asked, then he held up a hand just as she started to speak. “Don’t make up excuses, we’re not dying anymore.”

Placing her hands on her hips, she scoffed. “You can’t just say, ‘thank you,’ can you?”

“Thank you,” he replied sarcastically. “Now what the hell happened back there?”

Muttering a curse under her breath, Rey shook her head. “It’s too much to explain to a crowd. We need to speak with the general inside—no, actually just me.” 

Poe looked like he was about to protest, but then Finn rested a hand on his friend’s shoulder, and shook his head. “Hey, we don’t know what just happened back there,” he said, then he looked at Rey. “I’m sure she’ll tell us after she gets the all clear from the General.”

Biting his lip, the commander put his hands on his hips, then sighed. “Will you tell us more once you get the all clear?”

“Of course.”

“Great, then go inside. Don’t want to keep her waiting.”

An awkward moment of silence passed, then Rey glanced back at the Doctor. “Come on, the General’s going to want to meet you,” she said, then together, the two of them made their way past Finn and Poe, and into the base. She couldn’t be sure about the Doctor, but as for herself? She was absolutely dreading this. 

*

By the time they got back to the TARDIS, Poe was looking at her differently. He’d always barely been able to trust her, his past experiences with force users finicky at best, but now he was looking at her as if she’d sprouted a third head. Luckily, he had Finn, they both did, and as she prepared to return the Doctor to his ship, their more logical friend talked him down, and the weird stares ceased. 

“Look, I’m sorry for the lack of trust,” Poe said, holding out a hand toward the Doctor. “When you’ve got an army as small as ours, you can’t take any chances.”

“Poe, that’s not an apology,” Finn muttered.

“I’m sorry.”

“No harm done, I say just be careful who you point the blaster at next time, Hmm?” The Doctor raised his eyebrows, causing Poe to laugh as he nodded. 

“Yeah, that sounds solid.”

“All right then, I’d best be going,” he replied, then Finn and Poe stepped back, while Rey opted to follow him out of the base towards the TARDIS, curiosity furrowing  _ her  _ brow the whole way. 

“Where will you go now?” She wanted to know, needed to know. This mad man in a box had just come and saved her life, told her impossible legends were true, and now she was supposed to just get back to the war and fighting as if nothing ever happened. 

It was going to be impossible.

“I don’t know. Fifteenth century London? New Earth in the year six billion? Lot of options, I’ve got.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” she replied, then she shook her head as he approached the box. “Though I suppose with a ship that can take you anywhere, perhaps it does.”

“You could come with me, you know.” A wild look flickered in his eyes as he said that, as if he were almost daring her to follow him into the box again. “All of time, all of space, a whole universe for you to see.”

Laughter fell from her lips. She was tempted,  _ force _ , she was tempted, but she couldn’t follow him. Looking back at the base and all of the people walking around, she felt that sense of purpose she’d been longing for all her life. To leave them now would be blasphemy. She couldn’t go galavanting about the universe while there was a war on. “I…” She still struggled to say no, even if it was the exact right thing for her to do.

“It travels through time.” 

That only made it harder. 

“And if I die in another time? I can never return here to finish the war.”

The Doctor’s mouth formed a grim line, then he nodded, stepping back as he surrendered the fight, and gave her a kind smile. “That’s all right,” he replied, then he pointed a thumb in the direction of the TARDIS. “You left your lightsaber, though, I saw it in the kitchens.”

“Damn it, I don’t suppose you’d mind me invading your ship one last time, then?”

“Not at all,” he replied, then he stepped back, and let her lead the way into the TARDIS, the two of them walking into the old, blue box together with no idea what kind of tricks the ship had up its sleeve. 

The instant she stepped foot inside the ship, however, she caught hints of mischief bouncing off of its coral coated walls. There was something almost naughty in the air as Rey placed a hand on the railing, and the Doctor casually breezed past her. “You know, it really has been an honor meeting you.” She barely heard him as she spoke, finding that she was too busy keeping her eyes on the centerpiece as he removed his brown outer coat, and set it down over the bench on the side of the room. “Always used to look up to the Resistance heroes I read about as a kid on Gallifrey, I did.”

“Huh?”

“And  _ my god,  _ to have blasters pointed at my TARDIS? I’m not sure if I should be proud or offended.”

Blinking at him, she briefly locked eyes with the overexcited time lord before the entire ship lurched, and she found herself being thrown to the ground. Well, she would’ve been, if she hadn’t already been holding on tightly to the railing. The Doctor wasn’t quite as lucky, and he fell over just as the ship’s engines made that familiar takeoff noise, and the ship began moving through the time vortex. 

That sense of mischief was louder than ever. 

The Doctor stared up at his ship’s console in confusion. “What the—?”

“What did you do?”

“Me? I didn’t do anything!”

“Well clearly you’ve done something, or we wouldn’t be moving!”

“Oh, you’d be surprised, blasted ship has a mind of its own.”

He’d meant it as a joke, but as the green light emanating from the center of the room washed over her face, she knew it was also serious. The TARDIS was sentient, and apparently force sensitive. This ship could really do whatever it pleased, and right now, it seemed dead set on keeping her from the fight. 

Once upon a time, she would’ve only loved to hear of great battles in the stories she read. She would’ve been more than content to just bunker down on Jakku until the end of her days waiting for a family that was never going to come back for her. Now she wanted nothing more than to come back to the fight and defend what was left of the republic. 

“It is your ship,” she said, rising as he walked around from the other side of the console, making his way toward the doors. “Where are you going?”

“To see where we landed.” He sounded confused, almost innocent as he said it, like he was wondering why she’d be asking such a thing. It was almost as if he’d forgotten why she didn’t want to be there. Odds were he had. 

“I have to get back to Ajan Kloss.”

“Well, of course, but…” he stepped back, walking toward her as he spoke. “New planet, different sun, different flora, and we don’t even know what year it is. Or what galaxy.”

Swallowing, Rey spared a glance at the door, then looked back up at him. There was such a genuine excitement in his eyes, the wonder of a practiced adventurer, and she couldn’t help but feel a burning pit start forming in her gut. She wanted to follow him, to go out into the unknown and see what lay beyond those doors. 

“Just for a moment?” she found herself asking, then his face lit up with a grin. 

“Just for a moment.”

Nodding slowly, she looked down, watching his hand as he held it out towards her. “Why does everyone want to take my hand?” she muttered, taking it anyway before she allowed the Doctor to lead her outside into bright sunlight, and a planet as green and blur as Takodana.

Wherever she was, it was breathtaking. Trees towered over her head in brilliant hues of green, vines snaking down all around them, a blue sky sparkling above them, dotted gently with thin, cirrus clouds. “Oh…”

A bird flew overhead, magnificent, iridescent feathers stretching out far beyond its body as it cawed. Several more quickly followed suit, all flying out toward a nearby break in the trees, and she found herself wanting to follow them. “Oh, that’s good,” the Doctor muttered beside her. “Very good.”

Letting go of his hand, she moved forward, leaping toward the flock as they flew beyond the TARDIS and their tiny corner of the forest. Behind her, she could hear the faint sound of the Doctor’s footsteps crushing the underbrush, leaves crunching under both of their feet as they ran joyously through the jungle. It felt freeing. Every other time she’d traveled to a foreign planet, there had been some sort of enemy on her ass, some sort of threat always lurking in the corner. 

Right then, in that unknown place in that unknown time, there was nothing. She felt good, she felt  _ free.  _ The appeal of the Doctor’s offer suddenly made sense, the entire universe sprawling out before her as if it were some sort of platter of food that she’d never tasted, but suddenly the scent was overwhelming her with temptation. 

The trees cleared, making way for a great grass field with no one around except for those birds flying overhead. A joyous laugh fell from her lips as she came to a stop, the birds too fast for her to keep up with. “Did you see that?” she cried excitedly, pointing up at the sky with one hand as the other pulled back a few flyaway hairs. 

“New sky, new wildlife, never gets old,” he replied, strolling casually up to her side. 

“And humans,” she said suddenly, pointing toward where a boy—a teenager judging by the looks of him—was running across the field in a direction lateral to theirs. A head of dark hair that was strikingly familiar was sprinting through the long grass and flowers as fast as his legs—long and gangly, like he had shot up in height but the rest of his body hadn’t caught up yet—and upon further inspection, something was chasing after him, something she couldn’t see. 

Behind the boy, she could see the long grass rustling as whatever was on his tail gained speed, and he cried out in fear, his terror filling the force with a sudden sense of dread, anticipation of the worst sort. Before she could think, she was tearing off after him as well, her feet pounding against the ground as she chased the creature that was hunting this poor child. 

A loud shriek escaped the boy, much deeper than she’d been expecting and almost even oddly familiar. He was going to lose his fight, the creature rustling the long grass behind him gaining speed with every second, and before she could think, breathe, or contemplate whether it was a good idea, Rey’s hands were reaching for the lightsaber strapped to her side. 

She winced as she pulled it loose, her still healing injury from earlier protesting as she lit the blade, approaching the creature from the side as it gained those final few feet toward the boy. The wound could be worried about later, for now, she needed to focus on saving his life, and so she rushed forward, jumping into the air with a fierce war cry as she finally caught sight of the serpent chasing him. Shiny black scales that shimmered like oil on water covered the creature, and she found it almost beautiful as she brought her blade down, shutting her eyes as the hissing of the grass ceased upon the strike of her blade. 

The sound of a heavy weight flopping to the ground filled her ears a second later, and she opened her eyes to see the boy laying on the grass a few feet away, propped up on his elbows as he stared up at her in terror. As her breathing calmed and her heart rate slowed, the pain from her wound began to haunt her again, and she winced as she grasped at her side, placing her hand over the gauze and bacta that held her together. “ _ Shit. _ ”

“Are you okay?” the boy asked, voice cracking as he spoke. 

“Yeah, I’m f—“ The second she finally looked up, she felt like she’d stopped breathing. It was the first glimpse she’d gotten of the boy, and suddenly her breath caught as she realized the Doctor really did have a time machine. 

He had shaved off about fifteen years and probably seventy pounds of muscle, but sitting on the ground beneath her at the head of the beast she’d just slain, was the unmistakable face of a young Ben Solo. She hadn’t seen it at first, he was dressed in white and brown Jedi robes instead of his usual black tunic, but his long hair still held its raven color and wavy texture, his lips and cheeks were still rosy and flushed, and his eyes… there was that unmistakable gold glistening amongst the brown. 

And even now, fifteen years before they were scheduled for their first meeting, for that first encounter on Takodana, she could feel that little string that existed between them tugging at them both. As she swallowed back her shock, she wondered if he could feel it, too, if this boy could sense any of what lay ahead. 

“Ben…” she breathed, still unable to process that he was there in front of her, his eyes wide eyed and innocent in a way she’d never seen before. He didn’t even look haunted, not yet, he looked… sweet, kind, and almost like someone who—

“How do you know my name?” 

“I…” 

Before she could come up with an answer, the Doctor jogged up behind her, not even panting in spite of having run the same distance she had to get there. She flinched as he rested a hand on her shoulder, then in the same second, seemingly sensing the tension welling within her, he let go, and reached out instead to help Ben. “What’s all this, then?”

Her eyes met Ben’s, both of them blinking at one another as he grasped the Doctor’s hand, and allowed the time lord to pull him to his feet. “I—I was being chased, and-and she saved me.”

“That explains the snake then,” the Doctor replied, wincing as he looked down at the ground. “Ooh, that’s not exactly pleasant, is it?”

“How do you know me?” Ben asked, his eyes locked solely on Rey’s. “I’ve never met you.”

This time it was the Doctor blinking at her in confusion. “Rey, who’s this, then?”

“You’ve known everything else, so far. Are you telling me you don’t know?” she asked, then she pointed to the boy. “That’s Ben, Doctor.”

The man standing beside her furrowed his brows, looking between her and the teenager staring at them both with intense confusion and scrutiny as they try to figure out what to do. “Oh…”

“What-what’s going on?”

“Oh, um…” She could see the Doctor thinking, could practically witness the gears turning in his brain as he pointed a finger at Ben. “She’s force sensitive and I’m her brother. We were just checking out the academy up the hill, seeing if it was worth it to get her trained, to become a jedi. This is Yavin Four isn’t it?” 

“It-it is.”

“Right, well, we were just leaving. Got a few more errands to run before we commit to anything,” he said, then he made eye contact with Rey, who gave him a nod as he resumed speaking. “Nice meeting you.”

With that, he grabbed hold of Rey’s hand again, making her wonder why he constantly felt the need to do so as he then prepared to turn them around, and make a break for the TARDIS. Of course, Ben wasn’t done with them yet, he never was, and so as the Doctor trailed them away, he grabbed hold of her other hand, stopping them in their tracks. 

A jolt passed through her, and she turned to see the same shock reflected in his eyes as he let out a shaky breath. “I know you.”

“Not yet,” she replied, then she yanked her hand out of his. “I’m sorry, I have to go.” Then without another word, she and the Doctor ran, her injury sending pangs of agony through her as they rushed through the fields as Ben stood frozen behind them. She could sense the disbelief within him even as the distance between them increased. Both of them were terrified, scared beyond belief, and yet in spite of that, being around him when he was projecting almost pure light was comforting. Being around him like that felt good, and she hoped that someday, he could find himself again, could undo the conditioning Snoke had instilled deep within him. 

“Wait!” his voice called out behind them, and as they broke through the woods, she saw his silhouette chasing them through the trees. “Who are you?”

Rey ignored him, he couldn’t know her now, not when they weren’t supposed to meet for fifteen more years. When she woke up in the interrogation room on Starkiller Base, he hadn’t known her, hadn’t said anything about a prior meeting. 

“Keep running,” the Doctor said, adjusting his grip on her hand as they approached the TARDIS. 

“I know.”

“Good.” 

They crashed through the doors a second later, and Rey could still hear Ben crying out for them to stop as she slammed them shut. Faintly, she heard the sound of his footsteps stop, but before she could find out if he continued chasing her after that, the Doctor was at work on the console, slamming levers down and pushing buttons as the centerpiece began to move, and the ship transcended space and time once more. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter chapter but we’re getting into it now 🤘

After they left Yavin IV, Rey made her way back into the TARDIS’ med-bay, asking the Doctor if she could have a minute alone as she went. Given that encounter with Ben, the sudden proof that she could indeed travel in time, and how giddy she’d felt running beneath a new sky, she suddenly found herself unsure of what to do. 

Well, that, and her wound had started bleeding through her shirt again. She probably needed stitches, which was going to hurt like hell, but… she had to try. She had to make some kind of attempt to stop this before she went back to the Resistance and everyone saw the wound. 

The second she got to the med-bay, she leaned against one of the tables, the very same one she’d woken up on earlier, and took in a deep breath, air hissing through her teeth as she lifted up her shirt, and checked beneath the bandage. Wincing, she placed them back over the wound, and pushed herself off of the bed. 

A groan left her as she reached up and opened a nearby cabinet. “ _ Kriff,” _ she breathed, then she pulled back, and sighed. “Come on, just a few more inches.”

Her injury, however, refused to give. In the fields of Yavin IV, she’d been running on adrenaline, but now she had nothing, just the hope that she’d be able to move forward a little bit more, and finally free herself from the pain. Grunting with frustration, she gave up a minute later, and sat back against the table, deciding that it would probably be best if she just laid back for a while.

Slowly, she sat back on the table, groaning again as she did so, and wound up flopping back against the mattress without grace. All she wanted to do now was sit in silence and wallow in her own thoughts. Luck, however, had decided she would get not even that. 

Not even five seconds later, she heard the sound of the bond opening, and she whimpered as she moved to shift onto her side away from wherever Ben had inevitably shown up, and wound up right back where she started from the pain. 

“You’re still hurt,” he said, and she groaned again as she looked at him. 

“Please, go away, you’ll only make it worse,” she replied, then he raised his chin, looking down at her as he stepped closer to the table, his eyes not on hers, but on the wound in her gut. Those eyes, always so haunted and unsure, scanned her wound with a confidence she hadn’t yet seen in him in a long time. 

Not since the day he’d killed Snoke. 

“I can help.”

“No you can’t. You can’t reach the medicine cabinet, not like this.”

“I wasn’t talking about that.” He looked down at his hand. “There’s something I want to try.”

Distrust filled her for a couple of seconds, then she felt his calm in the bond, he was sending peaceful, kind signals over their connection, and that lack of trust quickly shifted. Nodding slowly, she beckoned him for th with a wave of her hand, and let out the breath she’d been holding. “Okay.”

“You’re sure?”

“I can’t get out of here until I’m healed, I can’t…”

“Where is here, Rey?” he asked, pinching the finger of a leather glove with his right hand and removing it. “I keep sensing… I don’t know, a third presence in our connection. It’s almost as if someone’s listening.”

She shouldn’t tell him, she knew she couldn’t. The one thing neither of them had ever done when the force connected them was tell the other where they were. At some point, they’d both given up asking. If he was asking her where she was now, it meant something. 

“I don’t even know where to begin,” she replied as he reached for the hem of her shirt. Without thinking, she smacked his hand away, gasping as she did so. “What the hell?”

“I need to see the wound.”

“I thought you were asking me where I was?”

“You can do that while I help you,” he said, then he reached again for her shirt. “I just need to see it.”

Giving him another apprehensive look, he blinked a couple of times, sending another wave of calm over the bond before she finally rolled up her shirt, exposing the blood soaked bandages. His breath caught ever so slightly, the sound so small she thought she might’ve imagined it, but then he gathered himself, and she shivered as his fingers brushed her skin, peeling back the bacta and the gauze was he looked down at what the blaster had done to her. 

“Oh, Rey,” he whispered, peeling it all from her skin as she winced, and held her eyes firmly on his hands. He said nothing else as he then spread out his fingers, and pressed his massive palm over the wound, his hand splayed out over her stomach as he closed his eyes, and she felt the force begin to hum around them. 

This time, her breath hitched as she felt the damaged skin and bruised organs start to repair beneath his palm. She called out his name, but Ben was too lost in focus to hear her. Both of them were breathing steadily, her eyes on his and his eyes shut as they existed in this space together, and she found herself wishing it would stay that way, that it would  _ always  _ stay that way. 

Eventually, she found herself resting a hand over his. “Ben?” And his eyes found hers, his fingers lacing theirs together as the last of the wound closed shut, and the blood faded away. His mouth shifted as he looked at her, both of them breathing a little harder as he leaned against the table she was lying on, his eyes never leaving hers the entire time. 

The tension in the room began to rocket, heating to a boiling point as time began to pass, but he never let go of her hand. Just this once it wasn’t a dream, he hadn’t let go of her hand. He was still holding on, and she finally understood what he meant when he told her she wasn’t alone. 

“Rey, I—“

Whatever he was going to say, he didn’t get the chance to say it. In that moment, there was a knock at the door, then she watched as it opened, wrenching her eyes away from Ben’s as the door then opened, and the Doctor stepped in. “Feeling bett—oh…”

He blinked, looking flabbergasted as he laid eyes on Ben, then they drifted down to where their hands were still joined over where her wound had been located just minutes ago. Thinking quickly, he adjusted himself, standing up straighter as he approached, and he and Rey finally let go of each other’s hands. “Hello, I’m the Doctor.”

All Ben did was stare at him, and she couldn’t help staring between them, unsure of how this confrontation would turn out. However this ended up, she was almost afraid of the outcome, even if it was positive. “Who are you?”

“H-he’s the Doctor,” Rey replied, studying his face as his eyes narrowed on the time lord’s face. Did he recognize him? For her it had only been an hour since that encounter on Yavin IV, but for him it had been fifteen years. Did he recognize her, too? Had he seen something in her that day they’d met on Takodana and wondered why she was so familiar? 

The mechanics of time travel were a mystery to her, but since the man standing beside her didn’t quite seem capable of recognizing the Doctor, she had a feeling that it just might’ve been too long ago. 

“What does that mean?” Ben asked, blinking like he was seeing a ghost, a flickering mirage that drifted in and out of focus with every passing second. 

“Nothing, it’s my name,” the other man replied, then his eyes scanned his broad frame. “So—?”

“How can you see me? How can I see you?”

“What do  _ you _ mean?”

“No one can see us.” This time, Ben’s eyes feel on Rey, and she started to realize he was right. Most other people couldn’t see them when they connected like this, and yet the Doctor could. She’d suspected his ship, his sentient TARDIS, might have been, but the man himself?

“Doctor, he’s right,” Rey interrupted, sitting up as she adjusted her bloodstained shirt to cover her skin, then she placed a hand on Ben’s shoulder. “No one should be able to see us, not unless they’re…” She thought of Luke when she said that, how he’d interrupted her moment with Ben in the hut. “Force sensitive.”

“Telepathic, sure, but force sensitive?” A snort left him. “Not impossible, but a bit unlikely.”

Ben fell silent for a moment, then his eyes narrowed, and he turned his gaze on Rey. “Where are you?

“That’s—“

“Where?”

“I don’t know.”

Ben opened his mouth to say something, then he paused, and took hold of the hand Rey had left on his shoulder, turning slowly as his mouth shifted. “Meet me somewhere. We can’t have this conversation here.”

“What?”

“We’ll get interrupted. We always do, and we both have too many questions for each other.”

“So what did we do?”

“Meet me on Pasanna in two days. Come alone,” he said, then he looked up at the Doctor. “Then tell me who he is.”

Before Rey could protest, he suddenly disappeared, the connection cut off abruptly as he faded away, and suddenly there was nothing but stillness in the room, and she found one of her hands settling down over where her wound had been just minutes earlier before Ben had come in and healed it. Her breath left her in a shuddering rush, emotions running through her head as she looked up at the Doctor, and said the first thing that popped into her head. “I need a new shirt.”

“I’ll show you the wardrobe in a moment, but…” He held up a hand. “Are you all right?”

She shrugged, then laughed to herself as she glanced up at the Doctor. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t mean to pry— _ well, I do _ —but I couldn’t help noticing the look in your eyes when you saw him,” he replied, stepping forward as he shoved his hands in his pockets. “Rey… I have to ask…”

_ Oh no.  _ He couldn’t ask her this, he couldn’t… she hardly knew what her feelings were herself. This wasn’t something she was prepared to answer. She couldn’t answer this. “Where is the wardrobe?”

“Rey…”

“Doctor.”

“I know that feeling. You’ll find me hard pressed to talk about it, but I know it, and I know it well.” He let his head shake slightly, a look of wonder in his eyes as she suddenly got the impression he was no longer looking at her, but a ghost. “I don’t talk about—“

“Neither do I,” she said, turning around for a moment as she fought back the urge to scream. “I don’t know what to do.”

She heard him shrug, the fabric rustling as he did so, then he stepped forward. “He asked you to meet him. Do you plan to?”

“I don’t know.”

“I could easily take you there. In and out. Then back on the road, the Resistance would never have to find out.”

“What?”

“I’ve made mistakes, lost chances I very easily could’ve taken. You don’t have to make the same mistake I did. You never have to.”

Scoffing, she turned back around to face him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You love him, don’t you?” 

Another pause, a beat during which Rey felt fury and rage well beneath her skin for a moment, then she calmed herself, and spoke through her teeth. “You’re the time traveler. You recognized my name and his when I spoke them. You know about the dyad. Shouldn’t you already have that answer?” she asked, then she walked out toward the hallway, pushing past the Doctor as she began searching for the wardrobe. “Where can I get a new shirt?”

There was a tiny sigh, then he stepped out into the hallway with her, and headed in the opposite direction from the one in which she’d been heading. “It’s this way,” he said, then together they made their way down the hallway, the last Jedi hoping beyond all hope that he would drop the question, and she wouldn’t be forced to confront feelings she’d long since started to bury. 


	5. Chapter 5

The TARDIS wardrobe was perhaps one of the largest, tallest rooms she’d ever been in. The space was cavernous to say the least. Spiral staircases lined the walls and along them was an endless railing from which fabrics of every color she could think of hung, swaying slightly as the ship hummed around them. 

Ahead, the Doctor’s footsteps pounded up that spiral staircase, his coat flowing out behind him in a way that reminded her of Ben’s capes and the way they followed him. It made her heart stop for a second as she remembered their conversation from minutes ago. 

_ Meet me on Pasaana _ . 

She wanted to. She wanted nothing more than to meet him there and stop the fighting between them, to change that connection between them into something good once and for all. 

But first she needed to change her shirt, and maybe, just maybe, she would be able to pick the Doctor’s brain as to what the hell she was going to do about Ben. She’d never felt this way about another person before, and there ahead of her was someone who’d claimed that saying nothing had been his greatest mistake—that he knew this feeling. Could he truly help her? Could he take her to Pasaana and reunite her with Ben and—

It seemed impossible, but it had to be her reality. She needed it to be. 

“So…” the Doctor said after a few minutes, running his hands over the fabrics that lined his ship’s walls. “These should fit. Well, most of them, anyway. Some might be mine and some can only be worn with a corset.”

“What’s a corset?”

“Oh, you’re so better off not knowing,” he mumbled quietly. “Feel free to take anything. I’ll be making repairs in the console room.” Then he made for the exit, leaving Rey alone in the massive, never ending wardrobe by herself.

For a few seconds, all she could hear was her breathing as she stepped back, and leaned against the rail. All the fabrics in front of her were overwhelming. Some shirts contained little designs and had words on them that somehow all appeared to her in Aurebesh, which she’d found suspicious from the beginning, given that this ship wasn’t from the galaxy, but… now it seemed even weirder. 

There was another shirt based in blue, red lines rimmed with white crossing over the center, back, and sleeves of the shirt. Confusion crossed her features as she looked at it, wondering if the shirt would fit, but then she remembered Ben’s instructions. He had wanted to meet her on Pasaana. A desert planet would not be a good place to wear dark colors, something she knew well from growing up on Jakku. 

“Shit,” she muttered to herself, then she began shifting through the remaining clothing, a purple shirt with a blue crown on it, a suspicious amount of sweatshirts with the words “PunkyFish” written on them, and eventually, a white tank top with a hood sewn on the back of it. 

That would do, she thought, and so she pulled it from the rack, removed the hangar, tossed it aside, and set about tearing her blood-stained shirt from her head. Grunting slightly, she tossed the shirt behind her, hearing the fabric rustle as it descended through the layers of the Doctor’s seemingly infinite wardrobe. She then grasped at the opening of the white shirt, pulling it over her head before she descended the stairs. 

She was going to need a belt to strap her blaster and lightsaber to after all. 

Nearby, a coat rack stood tall, but instead of coats, scarves and straps of leather hung from it.

_ Perfect.  _

Rey made her way over to the rack, hurriedly grasping at straps of leather that would only serve the purpose of keeping one’s trousers up. That wouldn’t help, she knew that much. She needed something else. 

Throwing a white scarf over her shoulder—half for the purpose of getting it out of the way—she reached in again, this time finding the belt that actually belonged to her. The time lord in the control room must’ve put it there after he’d treated her injuries. Relief crossing her face, she stole it back from the hangar, and paused for a second, regarding the scarf that hung around her shoulders. 

That could come in handy, too. It could be extra protection against the sun whilst remaining lightweight and preventing heat stroke. Desert weather was cruel and unforgiving no matter the planet. 

A smirk blossomed on her face, then she began draping it over herself the way she’d draped many different fabrics before, tying it securely around her waist before she grabbed hold of the belt and one of those many pink “PunkyFish” jackets. 

The desert was warm, hotter than hell even, but the TARDIS was kriffing freezing. 

*

Five minutes later, Rey made her way back into the console room, her boots silencing her footsteps as she walked. The only sound coming down the corridor was that of the Doctor’s tinkering, a sound she followed all the way into the front of the ship, until she found herself staring down beneath the grating that made up the floor at where the time lord was staring through a pair of spectacles like Maz wore at a series of wires. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing a surprising amount of muscle for how thin his arms seemed to be. 

Said muscle was pulled taut as he lifted up a heavy panel beneath the wires, flicked a switch, then closed it, and shut the area where the wires were exposed before turning to look directly into her eyes. She blinked at him, wondering how he’d known she was there given that she was so quiet, but then she remembered how he’d seen her connection with Ben, even talked to him. 

The man before her may have been force sensitive, and that would have explained everything, but he had claimed to simply be telepathic. Perhaps telepathy was enough, but… Poe had never seen her. Kaydel never had. No one else on the base had ever seen them even when he’d appeared next to her plain as day. 

Reaching out, she scanned the surface of his thoughts, attempting to see if there was anything dancing on the edges of his mind that could’ve given her some sort of clue. The Doctor’s mind, however, was nothing like she was expecting. 

Given his demeanor, she’d expected something light, curious, and she found hints of those things, but above them all was this all consuming fire. He burned brightly but not in the way she’d thought he would. Rage and violence simmered under the surface, screams and explosions filled her vision. Something dark and foreboding filled her, and she gasped as the chorus of shouts, voices, and some horrible four part beat echoed in her mind until—

She stumbled back against the nearest rail, staring at him in shock. “You…”

“Don’t go looking into people’s minds, Rey, it’s rude. Unless you have permission.” He then jumped out from under the grating, and began rolling his sleeves up. 

“What was that?” she asked, stepping forward as she stared at him mistrustfully, her hand slowly wandering back toward her lightsaber. “That fire.”

There was a pause, the Doctor’s Adam’s Apple bobbing visibly as he tried to figure out what to say, then he sighed. “A conversation for another day.”

“What does that mean?”

“We all have something to atone for. All of us.” Without saying another word, he made his way over to the console, and typed something into the monitor before he finally looked at her again. “So…” The word was drawn out, spoken slowly as he wandered over to a nearby lever. “Pasaana?”

Rey wanted to protest, wanted to ask him more questions about his life and the mysteries he’d presented to her, but she had a feeling he would give her nothing. As she reached out to touch his mind again, she could feel that he’d closed himself off. The Doctor knew how to lock his mind, and that meant to her that in some degree, even if he wasn’t aware of it, he was force sensitive. He was able to manipulate the force to shield his mind from her. 

The time lord could call it telepathy, but she knew, and suspected in a way they both knew, precisely what this was. 

“Yeah,” she wound up saying. “Pasaana.” Then the Doctor pulled the lever, and she was forced to hold onto the railing as that grating sound of the ship filled her ears, and they once again traversed space and time to make their way to the desert planet where they both knew Ben Solo would be waiting for them. 

After a few seconds, the noise stopped, and the shaking that always accompanied travel in the TARDIS—it alarmed her how quickly she was getting used to it—dulled. They’d landed somewhere. Hopefully that somewhere was Pasaana and not in the middle of Chandrila somewhere in decades past, somewhere she’d run into Ben twenty or more years before they were actually supposed to meet. 

“We should be there,” the Doctor said, moving past the console and toward the doors. Before he could get on the ramp down to the exit, though, he paused, turning to look back at her as his eyes filled with hope. “Coming?”

Still weary after everything she’d learned about the Doctor, Rey slipped off that pink jacket, and stepped forward to take his hand, their palms connecting as he guided her forth from the TARDIS, and she soon found herself greeted by the hot desert air. Sand swirled around them on the breeze, high cirrus clouds provided vague shelter from the sun standing high above, and though she could sense life signs all around them, there was no one in sight. 

They were alone, except for the distant whine of a very familiar engine. A TIE fighter was approaching. Fifteen miles away still from the sound of it, but in this desert valley, sound carried quickly and spread far. That fighter would be there within minutes if her gut was right that its pilot was Ben. Her breathing picked up slightly as she let go of the hand of the man standing beside her, and stepped forward onto the sand. 

Grains crunched beneath her feet as she looked out at the dunes, some of them as high as two hundred feet, she suspected. Impossibly tall, but on either side of her, they lined what may have once been a river, based on the cracks in the soil on which she was standing. As the seconds passed, and that TIE drew closer, she found herself breathing harder. Ben’s force signature was growing stronger, more powerful, and more intense by the minute. 

It wouldn’t be long before he rounded the corner and she found herself staring him down for the first time in a year. 

Soon enough, the wind shifted, those engines growing louder and louder as she finally caught sight of the TIE, it’s pointed black wings staring daggers at her as he flew down the valley in her direction with no sign of slowing down. 

_ So that’s how you want to play it _ , she thought into the bond.  _ Interesting.  _

_ How much do you trust me?  _ Was the reply, and she reached down to her side, gripping her lightsaber in hand as she watched him approach. 

“Rey, he isn’t slowing down,” the Doctor pointed out, temporarily interrupting the connection. “You need to move.”

She could hear him step closer to her, but she didn’t listen, she just let the wind rustle past her hair, a tension coiling deep in her gut as she prepared herself for what she was about to do. If she were to succeed, the man beside her would have to fail at stopping her, and for that to happen, he couldn’t be as close as he was. 

Gritting her teeth, Rey spared a glance at the time lord, his hand outstretched for hers once more. It almost reminded her of the throne room last year, when Ben had held out his hand and asked her to rule the galaxy with him, but this time he was asking her to run from that hand. He didn’t trust the man in the TIE, and given that he was approaching them far too quickly to slow down and far too quickly to avoid killing them if the Doctor didn’t step back, she understood why. 

But she knew Ben, she always would. He could be trusted, she knew this beyond all doubt. She trusted him even when they were at odds with one another, and so as the time lord reached out for her again, she cried out, her arm outstretched towards him as she pushed him back toward the TARDIS with the force, then ran onto the sand, running away from the approaching TIE, but aware of its location in the force all the same. 

She ran like the wind, faster than she’d ever run, igniting her lightsaber as she went, and her feet burned with every step as if she was setting the ground on fire, but it was worth it for the feeling of launching herself in the air seconds later, her entire body flying through the air as the world spun. It felt like forever that she was up there, flying high in the sky as Ben’s TIE passed beneath her, but then her feet came in contact with the metal of its roof, and she fell into a crouch, her teeth gritted as she held on for dear life, kneeling against the roof of Ben’s ship as she gathered her bearings, then worked open a nearby panel. Once the panel was open, she sliced through the wire that powered the engine, and the ship began to grind to a halt. 

She then deactivated her lightsaber, and closed her eyes, riding out his deceleration on the roof of the TIE as they slowly came to a stop. For a few seconds both during and after, she remained in that position, kneeling on the roof breathing hard, shifting only to attach the weapon back to her belt as the entire valley seemed to catch its breath. 

Eventually, though, she had to move. 

Rey slid down the tie off the rear, her body protesting as she landed on the sand behind her on her feet. A slight twinge of pain shot up from her ankles as she heard the roof of the TIE open, and she quickly backed up as the large, dark silhouette of her bondmate appeared before her. 

For a couple of seconds, the two of them just looked at one another, both still breathing hard from the exertion of what they’d just done, then Ben’s tongue came out to lick his lips, which were visibly dry from the desert air already, and he did something unexpected—

He laughed. 

“I almost thought you wouldn’t make it for a second.”

“You asked me to trust you. As much as I shouldn’t, I do,” she replied, then he smirked, humming contentedly to himself as he then jumped down, and his massive form stood directly in front of her, forcing her to crane her neck to look into his eyes. “Why are you here, Ben?”

“We can discuss it in a moment,” he said, then his hand reached cautiously out towards hers, and she noticed he wasn’t wearing any gloves. 

_ Just like the hut _ , she thought. “Why are you here?”

“The man you’re with… I know him,” Ben said. “I had nearly forgotten, but, I promised him something long ago, and at the time I didn’t understand what it meant, but…” He took a deep breath—or rather, as deep of one as he could take given how hard their chests were both heaving. “Now I do. Rey?”

“Yes?”

“I’d forgotten until I saw you again, when you were wounded, but I remember.”

A part of her wondered how he’d ever forgotten, but a larger part needed to know what he had just remembered. Deciding that was more important, she tilted her head up. “You remember what?” she asked curiously, finally reaching out to take his hand. 

“How you saved me.” His voice fell soft as he stepped closer, reaching up to cup her jaw with his other hand as he tilted her face towards his, and she suddenly became very aware of his lips. “It’s impossible, and I’m hardly sure how you did it, but when I was just a padawan on Yavin Four? You saved me. I never got the chance to thank you. I—I somehow forgot you.”

“A lot has happened since then.”

“Perhaps, but I’m saying it now. Thank you.”

Smiling softly up at him, Rey lifts a hand to rest it on his shoulder, finding it frighteningly easy to let her fingers grip him, to toy with the ends of his wavy hair. “I’d do it again,” she told him, meaning every word. “But Ben, why are you here?”

His body shivered in spite of the desert heat, his eyes closing temporarily as he shook a thought from his mind. “There’s something out there.”

“What?”

“After Snoke I thought the voices in my head would stop, but I was wrong. There’s someone else there now, someone far worse. Have you felt it? That shift in the force? The darkness?”

She paused, thinking through everything that had happened lately, the foreboding she’d felt looming over everything like a dark cloud but assumed only existed as a part of wartime stress. She thought of the Doctor and his fire, ice, and rage, of the burning he’d caused. 

_ We all have something to atone for.  _ Was that what Ben meant?

“It’s not him,” he assured her. “It’s someone else. Someone who will do far worse to the galaxy than you or I would, who would eradicate the entire system just to get what he wants.”

“Are you—are you leaving the First Order?”

“No, I’m proposing we work together.”

“Work together?”

“Yes. With our combined military power, we can find this threat and eliminate it, and maybe…” He tightened his grip on her hand, his face leaning ever so slightly closer to hers as he spoke. “Maybe we can find a way to work together. Permanently. I can’t go on as we have. Seeing you for a few seconds at a time every day across the galaxy is nothing to the feeling of having you at my side.”

Her heart was pounding against her chest, and it was no longer just from the running. “What are you saying?”

“Be with me,” he whispered. “We can’t keep doing this to each other and pretending there’s any sort of animosity between us.”

“There is, there has to—“ 

“Tell me the truth.” This time his voice was low, rumbling so deep that she felt it within her very soul. “I don’t hate you. I never have. So what is it that you feel for me, if it isn’t loathing?”

She didn’t know how to answer that. All she knew was that he was close, impossibly close. He was there, his breathing ghosting over her lips, and though she’d never touched another person like that, she knew what she had to do. 

How did she feel about him? She felt like he was both the sun and the moon, warm and cold all at once, like day and night. He was fire, and ice, and rage like the Doctor, but also wonderful, so wonderful, and as her lips found his, she told him so in their gentle coming together, that sweet reunion. They’d never met like this, but their bond transcended space and time. 

They would meet like this again someday, possibly quite soon, and those future kisses echoed back through time like memories as they shared this one, their first kiss, and she answered his question. 

His hand let go of hers, wrapping around her waist as the sunlight warmed their faces. A gentle breeze ruffled their clothes, cooling them slightly against the heat as the kiss built, causing Rey to forget everything around them as they melted into one another. 

They were a dyad, the Doctor had said. A dyad in the force, two that were one, and it truly felt as if that were true as they kept on kissing, her head spinning as—

A throat cleared, and suddenly all of the magic stopped—well, not entirely, but it was certainly put on pause—as they both turned and looked at the Doctor, who had shoved his hands into his pockets as he stood there staring at them. “Hello, nice to see you’re not dead, but—“

“We need to talk,” Rey finished for him, then she looked back at Ben. “All three of us do.”

  
  
  



	6. Chapter 6

From the moment Ben stepped foot in the TARDIS, Rey could see his eyes lighting up like she’d never seen them before. In them, she could sense the wonder he had. It was just like what she’d felt when she had walked into the ship for the first time. 

Through their bond, she could feel him connect with the ship, his mind reaching out for its soul as they walked into the main room. It was like watching a mirror image of herself, like seeing a vision of the past. 

His hand reached out as he approached it, and he touched the humming centerpiece of the console, the ship sending a wave of contentment through the air and into the minds of the three people in the room as he stared at it in wonder. “I can feel it.”

A small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, Rey stepped forward, walking up to the console centerpiece until she stood by his side. Briefly, the two of them looked at one another, then she too reached out, her fingers spreading over the green light, then she closed her eyes, sending the moment that Ben did the same. 

Visions danced in her mind. She could see Ben and the Doctor, but a young Ben like the one she’d met on Yavin IV. They were friends, she thought, or at the very least, they seemed to know each other well. Teenaged Ben was laughing with him, sometimes crying, and in one unfortunate vision, the Doctor’s fingers were pressed to his temples, his brows furrowed in concentration. The boy in front of him slumped over, the time lord laying him back as he fell unconscious, and Rey started to understand what happened. 

His memory of his time with their madman had been wiped, forgotten for another time. 

The vision shifted. This time she could see herself, but she wasn’t alone. Both of them were with her. The scenery changed every few seconds, far off landscapes and foreign places she’d never even seen or heard of appearing in the background, but in each and every one she was with her bondmate and they were smiling. Sometimes they were running, panic lighting up their eyes, but she could see laughter on their faces as well. 

She could see herself standing with her hands in Ben’s, the Doctor standing behind them as they exchanged rings, and the whole of the resistance looking on—some with tears in their eyes. The scene shifted to an island after that, greens and blues lighting her vision as she watched a small gaggle of children running about with little lightsabers in their hands as they either playfully fought or giggled. She and Ben were a little older, but by no more than a decade, and they were watching them. The children appeared to be from different species and planets, eliminating the concern that they were somehow theirs. She wasn’t ready for that conversation yet. 

In the vision, she turned to Ben, lacing her fingers through his as she cocked her head in the direction of the children running about near the beach. “Should we join them?”

“I think they can handle themselves,” her husband replied, his arm wrapping around her waist as he looked at her suggestively. “Besides, threepio’s watching them, and you and I haven’t had a moment alone in ages.”

Laughter filled the air at that as he then wrapped his other arm around her, lifting her into the air as she shrieked delightedly, and the two of them whirled off into an unknown space as the vision faded, and Rey found herself back in the console room. 

Both she and Ben gasped for air as they came out of the vision, their eyes—and hands—instantly seeking each other. Her fingers laced with his, her eyes wide in disbelief as she searched his face for confirmation of what she already knew; they’d both seen the exact same thing. 

“Is that…?”

“Your future?” the Doctor asked from behind them, stepping up toward the console with them as he nodded. “It is. Well, one possible version of it. Time is still in flux. Your future could go a number of ways.”

“How?” Ben replied, still holding onto Rey’s hand as he turned to face the time lord. “How did we see that?”

“You’re in the TARDIS.” This time, it was their new friend who placed his palm on the surface of the console, breathing deeply as he looked at them. “This ship can see all of time and space, everything that has ever happened and ever will. Every change, every snap decision, every tiny alteration to history, she knows. All our lives, from birth to death, she knows.”

“And you, Doctor?” Rey asked. “Do you know?”

His jaw fell slightly open as he looked at her, then he swallowed. “Not everything.”

Ben moved away from the centerpiece,turning to face the Doctor as an inquisitive look developed on his face. “Because it’s all in flux?” 

“Even I can’t know everything, some things you can’t predict.” The time lord then shoved his hands in his pockets. “So…” he drew out the word as he approached. “What brings you here today, Benny boy?”

“Benny?”

Resting a hand on Ben’s shoulder, Rey have him a reassuring smile. “Just go with it.”

“Uh, okay, I came here because there’s something new out there, something else hiding in the shadows.”

“What do you mean?”

“Palpatine,” Ben said. “The emperor. He's not as dead as we thought he was.”

“What?” 

“I don’t know how yet, or why, but I can feel him. There was this—I don’t know—this shudder, and suddenly a new voice was in my head for the first time in a year. It wasn’t Snoke.” His mouth shifted, then he took a shaky breath. “I’m starting to think it never was.”

Rey’s face fell as the Doctor’s grew concerned. “You’re certain?”

“Yes,” he replied, taking one of her hands in his. “That’s why I couldn’t risk telling you through our bond. I wanted to ensure no one else would hear this. We need to take him out, once and for all, and I couldn’t stay with the First Order to do it. I realized I didn’t want to.” His thumb ran over the backs of her knuckles, and he laughed quietly to himself. “Well, that, and General Hux would’ve mutinied in order to work with the emperor. He’s been floundering ever since Snoke died.”

“You want me to take you back to the Resistance then?” The Doctor asked. “With Rey?”

Ben shook his head. “No—well—yes, but—“

“I can do that,” he replied, rushing over to the console and flipping a series of switches, the ship shaking just enough that Rey and the man standing beside her were forced to brace themselves against the console. “I can drop you off on Ajan Kloss.”

“Drop us off?” Rey asked. 

“Yes, I wasn’t supposed to have you this long anyway. You made it clear to me that you didn’t want to stay.”

Shaking her head, she moved over to where the Doctor stood, and rested a hand on his arm. “The vision I had, the vision  _ Ben  _ and I had, you were in it. This isn’t over.”

“The future is—“

“Don’t tell me the future is in flux. I can’t rest until the galaxy is at peace and you have a chance to help us end this war.” She swallowed nervously, her body tense as he looked at her, and again she was reminded of the fire that simmered beneath the surface of his skin. “Doctor, maybe we can’t come with you right now, but please, consider coming with us.”

He fell silent for a moment, the most quiet instant of time she’d had since he’d rescued her passing by in a blur as they stared at one another, as that image of him from her vision wielding Luke’s saber filled her brain once more. Could he see it? Could he see what she saw? Did he know what it meant?

They weren’t meant to part ways on Ajan Kloss, not yet at least. 

“I don’t fight wars. I’m not supposed to interfere,” he said eventually. 

“But you help people. Help us, help  _ me _ .” Her lips parted, her breathing coming a little steadier as her confidence grew. “Consider it, would you?”

Another moment of silence passed, then he flicked a switch, and the movement of the ship ceased, crashing and banging giving away to its usual, serene humming. “The TARDIS needs to recharge anyway,” he said after a while, then he stepped back. “I need a moment.”

“Take your time.”

“We don’t have time,” Ben whispered as the Doctor left the room, disappearing into the ship’s various and endless corridors as they watched. 

Snorting her laughter, Rey squeezed his hand. “You know we’re in a time machine, right?”

“Right…” Sighing to himself, Ben released her hand, walking around the side of the console as he looked up at the TARDIS’ enormous centerpiece. “It’s incredible.”

“I know,” she replied as she began to walk along behind him. “I’ve always known other galaxies must exist, but this…”

“It’s beyond anything I’ve ever dreamed.”

“Yeah.”

She caught up to him then, one of her hands resting on his waist as she came to stand by his side. The bond fluttered at the contact, brief waves of affection and kindness filling her mind as his eyes found hers again, and the corners of his mouth shifted to give away hints of a smile. “I’m glad you’re here.”

As her other hand came up to lay on his chest; she bit her lip, wondering if she could ask him the question that was on her mind. “Why now, though? You could’ve come to me at any time.”

“For once I think I know the answer,” he said, taking hold of the hand at his waist to lead her over to a nearby bench that sat at the edge of the room. Neither of them spoke as they walked, but she could feel him thinking carefully on his answer as they sat down, and he laid his other hand over their joined ones. “I had to wait for the right moment. I couldn’t force this, it had to be… perfect. I had to remember what had happened in the past in order to hope to succeed in the future. That and, well, Hux being in charge of the First Order would be a death sentence for us all.”

“But won’t he be in charge now that you’ve left?”

“Aren’t we in a time machine?”

“The Doctor might refuse to interfere.”

“But he helps people. You and I both know this, we’ve seen it,” he replied, bringing her hand to his lips as he spoke, then he pressed a kiss there before holding it close to his chin. “He’ll come around.”

Slowly, Rey nodded, then she leaned against him, her head resting on his shoulder as she tried to believe that what he was saying was true, that the Doctor would eventually come around. But what if he didn’t? What if they only had each other in the fight? 

Maybe that was all they needed, though. Maybe they just needed to have each other, and no one else was actually necessary. After all, once they went back to the Resistance, they’d have at least another couple hundred people on their backs, wouldn’t they?

“I’m glad you’re here,” she whispered, then she felt the warmth of Ben’s head leaning against hers, their eyes falling closed as they held one another on the bench, and enjoyed the sweet feeling of contentment washing over them both. 

“Me too,” he replied. “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner.”

“It’s like you said. You had to move at your own pace.”

She could feel him smile again. “I did, didn’t I?”

“Perhaps you should take your own advice.”

“Perhaps,” he replied, then she felt his breathing start to go steady, becoming even as if he were relaxing in anticipation of sleep. A yawn escaped him then, causing one to leave her in turn as she leaned her body further against his. “Maybe later, though.”

She gave him a mild snort of amusement, then she brought her other hand up to rest on his shoulder, patting him gently. “Ben, we can’t sleep now.”

“Didn’t you say we were in a time machine?”

“I did.”

“Then we can sleep.” 

Another giggle left Rey, then she nuzzled her face against his shoulder, and let her body relax. “Okay, we can sleep. Just for a few minutes.”

“Just for a few minutes,” he repeated, then together, the two of them relaxed, falling into one another as sleep overtook them, and for the first time in a long time, the last jedi finally felt at peace. 

*

When she woke what must’ve been only fifteen minutes later, the Doctor was tinkering away at the TARDIS again, his brow furrowed in concentration as he used a strange looking device to screw in a nail on one of the levers on his ship’s console. He was so focused, she thought for a moment that he didn’t know he was being watched, but then his eyes briefly flickered her way, the fire behind them cooled by the calm in hers for just a moment. 

Unlike the last time she had seen him, though, he wasn’t conflicted. Resolution came off of him in waves, and she knew he was ready to give her an answer. 

Swallowing her nerves, Rey spared a glance at Ben, almost thankful that he was still asleep, then she took in a slow, deep breath. “Have you decided?”

“I did, yeah,” he replied casually, then he set down his tools, and braced his palms against the console. “Didn’t take me as long as I thought, I mean, really, it wound up being quite simple, I just had to—“

“ _ Doctor _ .”

“Right, sorry, I’m going to come with you. I’ll help your fight, but only because this is a flux point in history. If it weren’t, I’d decline. I’d have to.”

“Right.”

“Good.”

“So when do we start?” Rey asked, beginning to stroke Ben’s hair as he stirred slightly in his sleep. She probably should’ve woken him up, but given that they both knew they were about to have to head into battle, she figured at least one of them was owed a little extra shut eye. “I’m ready when you are.”

The Doctor grinned, then he placed his hand on the lever he’d just been repairing, and pushed it down, the ship shaking as they took flight, and began spiraling through the time vortex. “Now.”

That shaking, of course, jolted the former supreme leader awake, his eyes opening wide as he shook in her arms. Rey shushed him as he stirred, continuing to stroke his hair as he gathered his wits, and all of his most recent memories came rushing back to the surface. “What’s happening?”

“The Doctor said yes, Ben,” she told him, glancing between him and the man in question as she spoke. “We’re going to fight, and he’s going to help us.”

“Oh,” he replied, then he sat up straighter, his grip on her hand becoming firm once more as he looked into her eyes, seeming more serene than she’d ever seen him even as they were preparing to head into battle. “So we’re going to Ajan Kloss?”

“We’re going to Ajan Kloss,” the Doctor confirmed, drawing their attention to him as he pushed another lever down, then with one last victorious shout of, “ _ Allonsy!”  _ the ship gave a great shudder, and the noise finally stopped, all three of them breathing hard as if to fill the silence in the aftermath. 

They had landed back on the Resistance base. Outside those doors, the end of the war loomed high, win or lose, and as she and Ben stood, as the Doctor walked along beside them and they made their way through the TARDIS doors, she could only hope that somehow, against all odds, this would go their way. 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I originally wanted to go into detail on the end of the war and stuff, but I’ve written that a few times now and my muse just wasn’t with me so I’m skipping that and ending it here. This final chapter is super short, but I never intended for this fic to be terribly long anyway, and I kinda feel like wrapping it up so I can move on to other things. Thanks so much to everyone who read it, I know it was kind of niche lol

The end of the last great, galactic civil war was hard fought and hard won. Victory was subjective, if she was being honest. Yes, the Resistance won. Yes, they had earned their victory and restored democracy, the government of a republic, but at the cost of so many lives, she wondered if it was worth it. 

Ben assured her it was, but she could tell even he had his doubts. They all did. Even leia, the general, and the new leader of the Republic, was forever changed by it all. Everyone was. All of her friends, her new family, and the inhabitants of the planets unfortunate enough to become battlegrounds were haunted. 

But they had won, and someday, that meant new generations would grow, would heal from the wounds created by all of this, and the galaxy would become safe once more. They had created a galaxy where it was possible for things to be better, for society to be better. 

And they hadn’t done it alone. 

As they arrived home from the last battle victorious, Rey and Ben had walked out of the Falcon arm in arm, both of them grinning broadly as they held one another, and made their way down onto the base. They were terribly exhausted, both having to lean on the other to stay up, but they wanted to make a few stops along the way back to their bunk before they got their rest. 

The first would be Leia, for Ben to check in with his mother and assure her he was all right—which he claimed was ridiculous since she could feel him in the force, but Rey found it sweet—and the second would be the Doctor. They needed to thank him for all he’d done. He and his TARDIS had done more for them and the war effort than they’d ever thought possible, and though he’d kept his work minimal to keep from interfering with the timeline, he had always been there when they needed him. 

“Where do you think he is now?” Ben asked as they wove through the crowds of celebrating resistance members. 

“Probably off somewhere in the universe getting his hair done.” They both snickered at that, then before she could say another clever joke, the familiar sound of the TARDIS’ engines filled their ears, and they both froze, their eyes locking as they realized their plan to say hello to Leia first was quickly falling apart. 

A smug grin parted Ben’s lips, then they turned around to see the blue box had parked right behind them, the lights shining from within as they paused, then walked up to it. Relief filled Rey when she pushed on the door and it opened, allowing them to step inside as the familiar hum of the ship filled her ears, and she heard Ben close the door behind her. 

The Doctor was waiting for them by the console, his arms crossed over his chest while his feet were crossed at the ankles, and he leaned dangerously close to one of the ship’s many buttons. The odds of them accidentally winding up centuries in the past were now incredibly high, but the tiny upward tilt in the corner of his mouth made it worth it. 

“You’re here,” Rey breathed. 

“I told you I would be,” he replied, pushing himself off of the console as he jumped up on his feet. “So, war’s over.”

“It is.”

“Where did you go? After the battle?” Ben asked, his curiosity leaking into the bond as he spoke. “We couldn’t find you.”

“Ah, that yeah, I left Exegol. Had a few errands to run, people to meet.” His eyes remained on the two of them, though, and Rey’s mind recalled all of those visions where a young Ben had befriended the time lord.  _ Oh,  _ so that’s where he’d been. “A future to check in on.”

“And is the future still intact?” she asked. “Was this where we were heading all along?”

“Course it was. Couldn’t tell you that, though. Can’t spoil anything.”

“But you knew? You knew we’d win?”

A pause, then he nodded. “I did. It’s why I wanted to be as minimally involved as possible.”

There was an unspoken ending to that sentence, but they all knew where it was going, and Rey allowed herself to be filled with hope as she approached the console. “But you want to be involved now?”

“The war is over, I’ve been traveling without a companion for far too long, and, well, neither of you are bad company, so what do you say?” He looked at them with an almost childish glee in his eyes, then offered out his hands. “A whole universe and all of time. I can have you right back here in ten seconds and we’d have been gone weeks.”

“In ten seconds?” Ben asked, but Rey could see him already reaching out to take the Doctor’s hand. 

“Ten seconds,” he replied, then he hesitated. “If that’s not enough, though, I do think I need your help.”

“With what?”

“I saw you both in your connection, I could feel it, actually. You once said it meant something, Ben. I’d like for you to help me figure out what.”

“We can do that.”

“But what about your mother, Ben? We promised we’d stop by and see her first,” Rey reminded him, then his shoulder slumped slightly. “And we should probably pack our things.”

Ben scoffed. “What things? The TARDIS has a wardrobe.”

“It’s all right, Ben. I can wait if you want a moment to talk to your mother.” The Doctor gave him a kind smile, then laid a hand on his arm. “It’s up to you.”

Another brief moment of hesitation washed over him, then a grin lit up Ben’s face. “This ship can go anywhere and everywhere can’t it?”

“I am  _ not _ landing the TARDIS in your mother’s quarters, I nearly regenerated the last time.”

“What about  _ outside  _ her quarters?”

“I could do that, yeah.”

This time, Rey was the one who was grinning. “What are we waiting for then?”

The Doctor sprang into action, his hands glided over the console, his friends clinging to the ship for safety as the ship began to move through the time vortex. “First stop, your mother, then everywhere, correct?”

“Correct,” she and Ben replied at the same time. 

His grin grew even wider. “ _ Allonsy!” _ he cried, then the ship landed at its first destination, Leia’s disgruntled cry alerting them to the fact that they’d landed in the wrong place as their journey kicked off with a lecture from the general. 

Rey counted herself lucky, though. She had friends now, she had Ben and the Doctor, and they had an entire universe, all of space and time ahead of them. Their next stop was everywhere, and as Leia stormed on board the tardis to discipline the time lord, she found she couldn’t wait to see where this journey would take her. 


End file.
